After a summer spent lending her voice to some of dance music‘s biggest rosters, Los Angeles artist SAM SHI steps into a new light with “Comfort Zone,” out now on her own label, But Did You Dance. The track marks the opening statement of Live From Santa Monica, a live acoustic EP and performance film arriving next month, and gives fans their clearest look yet at the songwriter behind the producer.

The past few months have found SAM SHI as a featured voice rather than a lead artist, appearing on Nico Szabo and Aske Izan’s “Aside” for Anjunadeep Explorations and Enamour’s “What U Said” for Crosstown Rebels. Both tracks put her at the center of two of electronic music‘s most respected labels. “Comfort Zone” flips that script entirely, centering her own songwriting and pulling back the production to let the songs breathe.

“For most of my life, comfort meant needing someone else in the room, a relationship, a job, anything to keep me from sitting with myself,” SAM SHI explains. “I spent a decade building a career in tech, and I don’t regret a second of it, but I recently realized that I was using it the same way I used relationships: as a place to hide. ‘Comfort Zone’ is about the moment I stop hiding and start building a life where my energy goes towards a mission that I genuinely believe in, and that mission is best served via my love for music.”

Born in Honolulu and raised in Sweden, SAM SHI has always worked at the crossroads of disciplines. Before committing fully to music, she built a career in tech, studied physics and interactive media, and trained as a certified yoga teacher, a background that shows up in how her songs approach vulnerability, control, and the search for self. That throughline connects her dance floor collaborations to a project like this one, even as the sound shifts dramatically.

“Comfort Zone” is available now. 

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